When I first started doing geneaology I thought I'd never be able to track the Jones line down due to the common name, but it can be done!
I was able to find MY Jones relatives My Jones relatives can be traced back to NY. Charles Minor Jones was born abt. 1823 he married Lydia Malissa Perry of NY. Their son James Corcket Jones was my g-g-grandfather. He murdered his wife Isora Overacher. So it was a huge scandal and in the papers and there are criminal records. I have transcripts of the trial and everything. They were married in NE and then all the families moved to ID. It is amazing what you can find once you know where to look! Isora was born in Rome township, Jones Co, IA. I found them all in the 1860 IA Census! These families moved around together apparently as was so common in those days. The brother married one of her sisters, and ended up raising the children.
*Just noting that this is MY post that the names got messed up long ago when we had the board crash Becca_Anne)